Third most air-polluted capital

Surveys of Dhaka's air quality over the past decades have invariably been coming out with very disturbing data. The latest was the revelation at a seminar last month (21 Nov 2009), organized by the Association of French and Bangladeshi scholars and trainees (FBAST), and the French Embassy, that the city is currently the world's third most polluted, in terms of total suspended particulates (TSP) in the air. Old motor vehicles, brick kilns, construction activities and industrial exhaust have been identified as the main offenders, generating poisonous pollutants like lead and other heavy metals, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, dust, soot, ozone and other photochemical oxidants. However, dioxin and furans, two of the most toxic emissions identified internationally as having long-term health consequences, have reportedly not yet been monitored in Bangladesh. The reasons have not been specified.

An earlier report by the World Bank, released sometime in 2002, said that the cost in terms of loss of life and productivity, due to pollution-related diseases in Bangladesh is quite alarming. The number of deaths in Dhaka alone, from illnesses known to be directly linked to urban air pollution, was no less than five thousand then. Both mortality and morbidity must have grown considerably by now, that is, the numbers suffering from sicknesses requiring medical treatment as well as those with minor, but chronic, health problems, due to severe air pollution. Indeed, it seems Dhaka's 'gas chamber' status is unassailable. Whatever little was achieved earlier -- with the phasing out of the two-stroke 'baby taxis', the banning of old, unfit motor vehicles, efforts at improving the quality of fuel, instructions to regulate and maintain motor engines for efficient combustion, and the like -- has been totally defeated by the current chaos in the road transport sector. It is now dominated by ad hoc 'companies' bent on making the most from heavily polluting, dilapidated vehicles which have been retrieved from the condemned heap !

Without the honest cooperation of all the stakeholders, it is impossible to keep air pollution down to a reasonable level. Bangladesh's entrepreneurs ought to be sensitized and made to install built-in anti-pollution devices in their enterprises so that industrial exhaust is kept at a minimum. People-friendly transport services, including sturdy, least polluting double deckers on Dhaka's roads, and circular shuttle trains, ought to be put in place at the earliest. Various pilot projects, funded by the WB, the ADB and the WHO, for emission reduction, and rationalization of urban transport, have been taken now and then, but these have hardly been sustained. Awareness about the health-related impacts of air-pollution -- both outdoors and indoors -- seems to be non-existent. One finds many so-called air conditioned shops and offices without the least provisions for driving out stale air or servicing the systems. Even otherwise educated users seem to be unaware that air-conditioning systems could well turn out to be depots for bacteria, viruses, fungi and various spores of deadly diseases, unless regularly cleaned to let fresh air in.

Awareness about the very real hazards of air pollution must be addressed as a development priority and this is possible if good governance and good opposition both join hands. If that miracle could be realized all who are potential air polluters could be made to abide by the air quality regulations. Stakeholders from all sectors -- energy, industry, transport and environment -- must collaborate and cooperate sincerely to evolve dynamic partnerships among the government, the private sector and the general public to arrest air pollution, and improve the quality of life in general. There is no other way to effect a positive change.